On the left were two men and a woman. On the right were three men.

The two sides were glaring at each other, but no one had made a move.

Besides the members of the Observatory who were spectating, many common folk were also watching.

Murmurs of discussion rose and fell among the crowd.

"What in the world is going on in there? Why so serious? It looks like they’re about to fight."

"How should I know? I just got here myself. Hey, you were here before me, do you know what’s happening?"

"It seems to be over a table. You know how it is, a lot of Lord Officials have come to town recently. The inns and restaurants are all packed, so of course there aren’t enough seats to go around."

"Oh, I see. So they’re really about to fight over a single table?"

"I don’t know. Can’t tell if a fight will actually break out. They seem to be holding back."

The commoners chattered amongst themselves.

The auras of the two opposing groups had now intensified to their peak.

It seemed as if a single word would be enough for them to draw their Weapons and start a battle right then and there.

From the group of three on the left, the only woman stepped forward and spoke.

"We were clearly here for this table first. Why are you trying to take it from us?"

From the opposing trio, a slightly plump man slowly stepped out, a folded fan in his hand, which he fanned gently.

"Before joining the Observatory, we were all constables. We should all understand the principle that whatever it is, the worthy are the ones to possess it."

"We’ve taken a liking to this spot today. You should leave at once. We have no desire to dine in the same place as you."

Even though they were all from the Observatory, during the internal assessment, everyone was essentially an enemy—just not to the point of being life-or-death foes.

So on a normal day, if you could suppress your rivals even a little, you did. Lowering their morale could yield unexpected benefits during the internal assessment.

The woman gritted her teeth and slowly drew the weapon from her waist. "We may all be from the Observatory, but since you’ve decided to push us around, we won’t show you any courtesy. Today, either we fight to the death right here, or you obediently give up the table."

The plump man gave a cold chuckle. "Fine. Fighting here is pointless. Let’s go to the Observatory’s arena in Yunxi State and see who’s really stronger."

"Who’s afraid of who?" the woman snorted, then turned to leave.

The crowd quickly parted to make way. The onlooking commoners, fearing they might catch some bad luck from these robed Lord Officials, backed away even further.

But just then, a horse-drawn carriage happened to be passing through the street.

Ouyang Sword took in the lively scene, turned back to the carriage, and said, "Brother Shen, it looks like this inn is full. We’ll have to find another place."

Shen Bai poked his head out of the carriage, glanced around, and said, "It being full is no big deal. We can just go rent a house."

Whether it was full or not didn’t matter to him.

He could just find any vacant house and spend a little money to rent it.

Ouyang Sword nodded. "Alright, then let’s find another place."

With that, Ouyang Sword prepared to leave.

Because they had arrived in a carriage, they stood out.

The crowd’s attention shifted to them. A passing carriage was nothing special, and since it was about to leave, no one paid it any mind.

But when the members of the Observatory saw the person in the carriage, they all froze for a moment.

Immediately after, a fervent look appeared in the eyes of many members. They all stared intently at Shen Bai, their gazes fixed.

Shen Bai had been about to leave, but when he saw everyone looking at him, he frowned.

"What’s going on?" Shen Bai asked.

Ouyang Sword shook his head. "I don’t know either. Brother Shen, could it be that you know them?"

Shen Bai said, "I don’t. Never mind. I don’t want to cause any trouble here in Yunxi State. Let’s just go."

Ouyang Sword agreed and, paying no mind to the others, prepared to drive the carriage to their next destination.

But just then, the two groups who had been in conflict ignored each other and instead blocked Shen Bai’s carriage.

Seeing this, Shen Bai frowned. "What is the meaning of this?"

He had come on this trip just for the internal assessment; he didn’t want any trouble here.

It wasn’t that he was afraid, just that he couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.

For the past few days, Shen Bai had been grinding the Skill Level of his Water Control Technique. The technique only required 5,000 points to go from Level 3 to Level 4, so by the time he arrived in Yunxi State, it had already reached Level 4.

[Water Control Technique Level 4 (Water Attribute +8, Water Speed +8, Water Control +8, Water Attack +8): 0/10000]

After reaching Level 4, all the previous Attributes of Shen Bai’s Divine Power had doubled, and he had also gained a new Water Attack Attribute.

This Attribute was an extremely strong support-type for Shen Bai, capable of increasing the attack power of water.

Of course, the +8 value also represented the intensity of the attack.

For Shen Bai, this was already a huge improvement, so he thought, ’I should continue grinding the Water Control Technique now and raise it to the peak of Level 4.’

As for Evil Qi, he could just look for it later.

Since Shen Bai was currently focused on grinding his Divine Powers, he really didn’t want to cause trouble here.

But these guys had actually blocked his carriage, which annoyed Shen Bai immensely.

"Count your lucky stars that I haven’t come looking for trouble.

"And now you block my path? Are you not afraid of losing your lives?" Shen Bai said.

The two groups of members blocking Shen Bai glanced at each other. The slightly plump man, fanning his folded fan, cupped his hands in a salute and spoke.